The static is building inside of my chest
A phantom pressure that won’t let me rest
The room starts to spin and the walls bend in
The air turns to glass, needle-sharp on my skin.
I’m choking on words that I never could say
As the floor beneath me begins to give way.
Ground myself. Name three things I see.
Just a chemical trick. It isn’t me.
But the air won’t come, and my hands won’t steady
The storm doesn’t care that I’m not ready
The signal is warping, the wires are crossed
Counting the seconds, completely lost
My heart is a piston that’s breaking the frame
An internal fire without a flame
They tell me to breathe, say “it’s all in your mind”
But the blade of the guillotine’s dropping behind
A shadow that grows in the brightest of light
Turning a beautiful day into night
And it hits like a wave in a pitch-black sea
I’m under siege by the ghost in me
White noise screaming out inside my brain
Spike the adrenaline, trigger the pain
I am drowning dry on a concrete floor
Forgot how to breathe, I’ve lost sight of the door
The static fades to a low, heavy hum
The racing subsides, and the senses go numb
Still shaking, still standing, I survived the crash
Sweeping up the pieces of a mind gone black
© Mandy Mayes 2026
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